Aidan begged for what felt like forever for an XBOX. All my friends have it.... why can't I? I am the ONLY kid that doesn't have one. Can I get an XBOX for my birthday? How about Christmas? Finally at some point he wore us down and we agreed to buy him. Before it got hooked up we gave Aidan the XBOX rules. The XBOX can only be played on the weekends or when you get enough stars to earn extra game time. You can play it for no more that 2 hours a day even on the weekend and when you earn extra time. When time is up there is no whining. There is absolutely NO down loading. Anything. At all. You play the games that WE buy for you and that is it. You are only allowed to play games rated E (everyone). No T (teen) and never M ( mature 17+). If any of the rules are broken the XBOX will be taken away for good or at the very least until you are old enough to follow the rules... got it? Of course Aidan desperate to get his hands on controller would have agreed to anything in the moment.
Like anything else Aidan is not content to just be. He needs to push the boundaries. Test the limits. Break the rules. Push your buttons. I am not sure why. It never ends well for him and you think that he would realize this by now. So you can assume that getting a new XBOX along with three age appropriate games was just not enough. It never is.
These games are too easy.
These games are too babyish.
These games are not what I wanted.
Can you get me different games. Just one T game. Everyone else has T games. Why can't I?
Can I download something the games I have are boring. Why is there a lock on here? Can you take it off?
Leave it to my father in law to buy him a T game. T games are rated T for a reason. Not just because they are inappropriate but because they are hard. They have story lines that are impossible for a 7 year old to follow. They can't comprehend the object of the game. It turns into an exercise in frustration for everyone involved. Especially Aidan. After too many arguments. Time outs and XBOX suspensions I gave Aidan one last chance to use the XBOX according to the original rules. I must be crazy. No sooner had Aidan gotten his XBOX privileges back... he lost them again. This time for good.
I went out with a friend for a drink for a little over an hour after being home with the kids all week while my husband was away on business. One hour. One hour that Aidan had his dad all to himself. In that 60 minutes Aidan somehow convinced his dad to download a game rated M. M for mature. Aidan is anything but mature. 17+ for a 7 year old boy. What was my husband thinking?! I still have no idea. What I do know... for the hundredth time I will be the bad guy. I will be the worst mom ever. I will be lame. I will be the one to take it away after dad said he could. I will take the brunt of the out burst that will also lead to yet another time out. So I braced myself. And simply sat Aidan down and explained to him that he had once again broken the rules. And since it seemed that his only interest was in playing T and M games that he would have to wait until he was in fact a teenager to get the XBOX back this time. It went about as badly as I had anticipated.
I hate this constant on going struggle. To do the right thing. By them. I hate that it is only going to get harder. I hate that I have to be the bad guy. I hate that is all that Aidan sees at the moment. I hate that his friends are allowed to play these games and that he feels left out. But games have ratings for a reason. I have heard other parents say well I them play/ watch because most of it goes over their head anyway. I feel like saying or so you think... don't ever underestimate your kids ability to grasp concepts that are well ahead of their time. Besides even if it is over their head by the time they get it they will have seen it so much that they are desensitized to all these images that should shock them. Often times of a violent and or sexual nature all hidden inside the video games kids are playing while being baby sat by electronic devices in the privacy of their bed room. And we wonder why kids are so screwed up nowadays?! And so Aidan said when will I be able to play a game rated M? I don't know in my opinion most of the adults I know don't fall into a category that I would consider mature. And just when Aidan starts to act his age and the tantrum has subsided Seark chimes in with "we gonna sell you XBOX on YouTube Aidan"... and it starts all over again. Even though you can't sell anything on YouTube.
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